European developers are gaining momentum on Facebook and other platforms. In this series we aim to highlight the most important social gaming companies from Europe.

This week we take a look at Crowdpark from Germany – a social betting company who recently expanded into social casino games.

• Name: Crowdpark

• What they do: Crowdpark is pioneering social betting and casino games which bring the thrill of legal betting to the world of social gaming.

• Location: Crowdpark was founded in Berlin with headquarters in Berlin and an office in San Francisco.

• Founded by: Martin Frindt (CEO), Ingo Hinterding (CPO), Christoph Jenke (COO)
• Founded in: April 2009

• Funding: Earlybird Venture Capital, Target Partners, Business angels – funding total to date: EUR 6M
• Number of employees: 30

• Games published on: Facebook, Web, mobile (iOS and Android – coming soon)

• Game genre(s): Social betting games (a genre introduced by Crowdpark), social casino games
• Games:
  Bet Tycoon –  released in January 2011 (currently 30,000 monthly active users on Facebook)
  Pet Vegas – released in January 2012 (currently 20,000 monthly active users on Facebook)
  90Live – official release in February 2012

• Working with publisher(s): No

• Languages: English, German, Spanish, Turkish

• User demographics by gender:
  Social betting games – majority male
  Social casino games – majority female players
• User demographics by location: North America, Western Europe, and emerging and Facebook markets such as Brazil, India, Indonesia and Turkey.

• Most expensive virtual item: Customized outfits for Betty, the Bet Tycoon secretary
• Best-selling virtual items: Betty’s sexy outfits (Bet Tycoon)

• What do you see as currently most exciting trend in the industry?
  Casino games are one of the hottest growth categories of social games. International Games Technology recently announced that they will acquire DoubleDown Interactive, a social casino games company, for $500M. The social games industry is excited about the social nature of betting and gaming and synergies between social games and igaming.
  Rumors are circulating that Facebook could allow real-money gaming on their platform. Crowdpark remains dedicated to our identity as a social betting and casino games company only dealing in virtual goods. Nonetheless, we welcome the bridge between social gaming and igaming.